Your iPhone 5 may have been using the cellular data network instead of Wi-Fi.

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Some Verizon iPhone 5 users whose phones were using the data network while supposedly connected to Wi-Fi won't be charged for their extra data usage. The company issued a statement on Monday morning, published by The Loop, which followed a carrier settings update issued over the weekend.

Over the last week or so, some Verizon iPhone 5 users reported seeing abnormally high data usage on their accounts despite their phones being on Wi-Fi during the time they were being used. This behavior was of particular concern since most customers are no longer on Verizon's old unlimited data plans. It turned out that the phones had only claimed to be using Wi-Fi when they were instead using LTE or 3G.

But over the weekend, Verizon iPhone 5 customers received pop-ups on their devices saying there was a carrier settings update that "resolves an issue in which, under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network." If you are one of these users and didn't receive the pop-up, however, you can force it by going to Settings > General > About, which will (eventually) make the message appear. Users must then tap "OK" and reboot their phones for the update to install.

"Under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network," Verizon said in its statement to the Loop. "Apple has a fix that is being delivered to Verizon customers right on their iPhone 5. Verizon Wireless customers will not be charged for any unwarranted cellular data usage."

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

27 Reader Comments

What are the odds Verizon automatically fixes these charges, or if they just are more likely to bend when a customer comes to them with a crazy-high bill, happily charging customers that don't know enough to complain.

It might not be Apple's fault. The phones all have a set list of things that are required to use cellular data, MMS messages being the biggest one. It's possible that list was simply wrong, which is why the fix was a quick PRL-esque update to the phone, rather then an actual software upgrade.

I wonder if this is happening with Sprint as well. I'll notice my phone on wifi not being able to connect to the Internet, then realize I have no cell service, and I have to restart my phone. Almost like it is preferring the cell network even when wifi is connected.

It might not be Apple's fault. The phones all have a set list of things that are required to use cellular data, MMS messages being the biggest one. It's possible that list was simply wrong, which is why the fix was a quick PRL-esque update to the phone, rather then an actual software upgrade.

Quote:

"Apple has a fix that is being delivered to Verizon customers..."

Would be weird for Apple to engineer the solution to a problem with Verizon network functionality.

I'm such a user -- a new VZW customer actually (long time AT&T iPhone subscriber). My phone didn't have a pop up either. Luck I read this story, the force worked perfectly.

Before I read to the part of TFA detailing the force, I actually tried to go to Settings -> General -> Software Update and it happily told me it was up to date. From a common sense standpoint navigating to Settings -> General -> About to force a software update just seems.... well.... dumb.

I believe this might be due to the changes Apple made in iOS 6. When it is connected to both wifi and cellular, the device will automatically switch back and forth between connections depending on the relative quality of each. If your wifi is down in the dumps and you're at 5 bars, your phone will connect through cellular instead.

Since Verizon's billing systems were consolidated into one they have been quite good. I have no doubt they are going to fix it for anyone with an iPhone 5.

I haven't had the misfortune of dealing with their billing folks for a while, so I'll have to take your word for it. They used to be absolutely terrible.

Personally, I get a text when I use up half my Verizon data plan, and another at three quarters. So hopefully most people who have run into this problem will know about it before they simply encounter an epic bill.

I believe this might be due to the changes Apple made in iOS 6. When it is connected to both wifi and cellular, the device will automatically switch back and forth between connections depending on the relative quality of each. If your wifi is down in the dumps and you're at 5 bars, your phone will connect through cellular instead.

The question is, is should this be considered cellular or wifi usage?

May be more about the availability of LTE and Personal Hotspot. If you are on the Family Share plan then Hotspot is included and it may mistakingly assume you are using it for some reason (hence simultaneous wifi/LTE. Less likely is that someone is somehow seeing your hotspot even though you don't have it active in settings (that would be a bad bug but I don't see any evidence of that here.)

If the phone looks for the best connection, then LTE might win out over Wifi and hence isn't a good measure of which connection to use.

Since Verizon's billing systems were consolidated into one they have been quite good. I have no doubt they are going to fix it for anyone with an iPhone 5.

I haven't had the misfortune of dealing with their billing folks for a while, so I'll have to take your word for it. They used to be absolutely terrible.

Personally, I get a text when I use up half my Verizon data plan, and another at three quarters. So hopefully most people who have run into this problem will know about it before they simply encounter an epic bill.

They still are terrible. I thought I was pretty safe getting a Prepaid plan for my iPad through Verizon, but they figured out how to screw that one up too. They activated someone else's iPad with my IMEI number, thereby kicking mine off the network. At this point, there was no way for their billing system to stop charging me, since I couldn't log in through the iPad and cancel. Their solution was for me to go the Apple Store and get a replacement Apple, and to call my credit card company and have them stop paying.

I seriously doubt whether Verizon will make right with this without a phone call, and even then...good luck!

Since Verizon's billing systems were consolidated into one they have been quite good. I have no doubt they are going to fix it for anyone with an iPhone 5.

I haven't had the misfortune of dealing with their billing folks for a while, so I'll have to take your word for it. They used to be absolutely terrible.

Personally, I get a text when I use up half my Verizon data plan, and another at three quarters. So hopefully most people who have run into this problem will know about it before they simply encounter an epic bill.

They still are terrible. I thought I was pretty safe getting a Prepaid plan for my iPad through Verizon, but they figured out how to screw that one up too. They activated someone else's iPad with my IMEI number, thereby kicking mine off the network. At this point, there was no way for their billing system to stop charging me, since I couldn't log in through the iPad and cancel. Their solution was for me to go the Apple Store and get a replacement Apple, and to call my credit card company and have them stop paying.

I seriously doubt whether Verizon will make right with this without a phone call, and even then...good luck!

My ex-wife works at AT&T in "Network Escalations", which basically means the last stop in troubleshooting anything which may be network related. She was just complaining last night about duplicate IMEIs being a thing in the last year. Apparently, it isn't limited to only iPads any longer and folks with the iPhone 5 are experiencing it. She's actually got a set of iPads that someone at work managed to get their hands on which both have precisely the same IMEI on the label as well as in the device's settings. The serial numbers are a single digit apart.

This is somewhat speculation but it sure sounds to me as though there's a fairly uncommon Apple defect relating to duplicate IMEIs. The carriers simply have no way to change that or allow duplicates in any way. That's probably why they told you to go to Apple for a replacement.

While it's Apples fault, I was under the impression the IMEI comes burned into the radio from Qualcomm (or whoever)

That sounds like a bug in the new Qualcom chip that Apple is using in the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 (they may not be exactly the same chip, but they are from the same family of chips that supports LTE). Sounds like there may be an issue there. What needs to happen in my opinion is that the person coming to the network with the duplicate IMEI is the one that needs to be told to go get a device with a different IMEI. The system shouldn't be allowing you to over-ride an active account with a given IMEI, thereby mysteriously kicking an active user's device off the network (in the case of Relayer, Relayer's device should stay on the network and whatever new customer is coming online should be told that there is a conflict and they need to get a new device to register.). That way, you don't just create a new, unrelated support call when you could just catch the issue for the new person and tell them.

Of course, that all falls apart when the IMEI is being added to an unrelated network on another provider (ATT vs Verizon, another country, etc). In that case, may the best man or woman win!! :-)

Since Verizon's billing systems were consolidated into one they have been quite good. I have no doubt they are going to fix it for anyone with an iPhone 5.

I haven't had the misfortune of dealing with their billing folks for a while, so I'll have to take your word for it. They used to be absolutely terrible.

Personally, I get a text when I use up half my Verizon data plan, and another at three quarters. So hopefully most people who have run into this problem will know about it before they simply encounter an epic bill.

They still are terrible. I thought I was pretty safe getting a Prepaid plan for my iPad through Verizon, but they figured out how to screw that one up too. They activated someone else's iPad with my IMEI number, thereby kicking mine off the network. At this point, there was no way for their billing system to stop charging me, since I couldn't log in through the iPad and cancel. Their solution was for me to go the Apple Store and get a replacement Apple, and to call my credit card company and have them stop paying.

I seriously doubt whether Verizon will make right with this without a phone call, and even then...good luck!

My ex-wife works at AT&T in "Network Escalations", which basically means the last stop in troubleshooting anything which may be network related. She was just complaining last night about duplicate IMEIs being a thing in the last year. Apparently, it isn't limited to only iPads any longer and folks with the iPhone 5 are experiencing it. She's actually got a set of iPads that someone at work managed to get their hands on which both have precisely the same IMEI on the label as well as in the device's settings. The serial numbers are a single digit apart.

This is somewhat speculation but it sure sounds to me as though there's a fairly uncommon Apple defect relating to duplicate IMEIs. The carriers simply have no way to change that or allow duplicates in any way. That's probably why they told you to go to Apple for a replacement.

E: clarity

This is also correct. Whenever Apple refurbs a phone/tablet, they don't just replace the parts, they reassign a different IMEI/MEID. Which causes problems because you end up with duplicate device IDs. Sometimes, though, it's just an automated manufacturing glitch, like when Motorola sent out a bunch of v3C Razrs with MEID stickers that didn't match the hard-coded IDs years ago.

I believe this might be due to the changes Apple made in iOS 6. When it is connected to both wifi and cellular, the device will automatically switch back and forth between connections depending on the relative quality of each. If your wifi is down in the dumps and you're at 5 bars, your phone will connect through cellular instead.

The question is, is should this be considered cellular or wifi usage?

(Damn it; ate the first part of my post )

This.

Also, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/43 ... 0&tstart=0, post from cypherwar appx 3/4 down the page. Apple tested a new feature that got embedded with iOS6 called wifi+cellular data, which lets the phone decide which network to connect to instead of preferencing WiFi connections over cellular data when available. Which is goofy for multiple reasons (silly Apple; glad I have my Droid ).

As for how they'll distinguish between WiFi and Cell usage for the folks affected -- call in, if you had the issue, and since it's a known issue, you're set.

While it's Apples fault, I was under the impression the IMEI comes burned into the radio from Qualcomm (or whoever)

That sounds like a bug in the new Qualcom chip that Apple is using in the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 (they may not be exactly the same chip, but they are from the same family of chips that supports LTE). Sounds like there may be an issue there. What needs to happen in my opinion is that the person coming to the network with the duplicate IMEI is the one that needs to be told to go get a device with a different IMEI. The system shouldn't be allowing you to over-ride an active account with a given IMEI, thereby mysteriously kicking an active user's device off the network (in the case of Relayer, Relayer's device should stay on the network and whatever new customer is coming online should be told that there is a conflict and they need to get a new device to register.). That way, you don't just create a new, unrelated support call when you could just catch the issue for the new person and tell them.

That's what my ex and her team do, yeah. It's a major fight with Apple every time, though, "because IMEIs are only a carrier thing and there's no way to have duplicates so that's impossible." RDF much?

I've wondered about this and couldn't find an answer Googling it and looking on Verizon's website. I have Windows phone with Verizon and I don't know if it is using the 3G data if I have my wireless on connected to my router. Basically I don't know if it is using both at the same time instead of defaulting to the wireless when wireless is connected. What I tend to do is turn data off when I am home and just use the wireless setting.

Does anyone know if it defaults to wireless if you are connected to wireless? Instead of using the 3G data connection.

I have read some reports that this may actually indeed be a software issue which affects other carriers than just Verizon, but there seems to be no definitive information yet. I am more interested in how Verizon will continue to deal with this - is there a mandatory update? Will the charges be wiped for just one billing cycle, or are iPhone users on Verizon now openly getting unlimited data where the rest of us are not?

Conclusion: my 4S is staying on iOS 5 for the time being. Between that and a friend's iPhone 5 simply locking up - and staying locked up until the battery was fully drained - it doesn't seem like a good time to upgrade.

It might not be Apple's fault. The phones all have a set list of things that are required to use cellular data, MMS messages being the biggest one. It's possible that list was simply wrong, which is why the fix was a quick PRL-esque update to the phone, rather then an actual software upgrade.

It might not be Apple's fault. The phones all have a set list of things that are required to use cellular data, MMS messages being the biggest one. It's possible that list was simply wrong, which is why the fix was a quick PRL-esque update to the phone, rather then an actual software upgrade.

I am curious, if its not apple's fault - whose fault is it?

And if its not Apple's fault - why is Apple issuing a fix?

Each carrier provides Apple with certain network settings. Apple then pushes those out to the devices. Most manufacturers don't operate this way but Jobs was always keen on keeping absolute control over "his" stuff whenever possible. I can't say I completely disagree with it when you consider how quickly iOS6 is being pushed out.